Accusativus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A grammatical term referring to the case that typically denotes the direct object of a verb in many languages
2. Describing the inflectional category used for nouns that receive the action of the subject in various languages
3. Related to the form a noun takes when it functions as an object of a transitive verb, specifically in certain grammatical frameworks

Etymology: "Accusativus" is Latin for the case of the direct object, and its name rests on a mistranslation. The Greek grammarians who first described the case used the word "aitiatikē" (from "aitia", cause), meaning the case that expresses the cause or the thing affected by an action. Roman scholars who translated Greek grammar into Latin rendered this as "casus accusativus," but the Latin word "accusare" means "to accuse," not "to cause." The error was a translation slip that stuck. Latin grammarians took the term over from Greek and kept the mistaken sense. English took the Latin term directly, using "accusative" as the grammatical name for this case in languages like Latin, German, and Russian, where nouns change their endings to show their role in a sentence.

Synonyms: accusative case